PHOEBE HANDSJUK MYSTERY: DID SHE FALL... OR WAS SHE PUSHED?
HER FAMILY ARE STILL DESPERATELY SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH MORE THAN A DECADE ON
The death of Phoebe Handsjuk remains one of Australia’s most baffling and bizarre mysteries. The beautiful 24-year-old, described by her loved ones as “vibrant” and “cheeky”, was discovered dying on the floor of a garbage room in a luxury apartment tower in Melbourne on December 2, 2010. Phoebe had fallen 12 storeys down the building’s main rubbish chute. Her blood left a trail on the floor as she had tried to drag her broken body towards the door, before she bled to death.
Despite a coroner ruling Phoebe’s death was accidental and didn’t involve a third party, her family are adamant she couldn’t have put herself down that rubbish chute.
“It’s the truth we are missing here,” her mother, Natalie Handsjuk, told media.
“We are being told our daughter, granddaughter and sister put herself into this thing because she was a damaged, disturbed girl and it’s just not true. I don’t know what happened, I just feel sure she didn’t put herself down that chute – either accidentally or on purpose.”
Toxicology reports revealed Phoebe had taken the sedative zolpidem, known as Stilnox, and had a blood-alcohol level of 0.16 – more than three times the legal limit – when she died.
There were unexplained bruises on the artist’s wrists and upper arms. There was blood and smashed glass in the apartment she shared with her partner of two years, Antony Hampel, then 43, and there were no fingerprints on the garbage chute door.
Phoebe’s grandfather, Lorne Campbell, a retired police detective, was planning to see her on his 70th birthday in December 2010. Tragically, he went to see the garbage chute at her apartment instead.
Lorne says he was staggered by how small the disposal was – measuring 37cm by 22cm and more than a metre above the floor.
“There’s no way Phoebe could have climbed inside in her condition,” he explained. “There were no fingerprints on the chute door or steel surrounds, which appeared to have been wiped clean. Right from the start, I believed she had been murdered.”
‘I FEEL SURE SHE DIDN’T PUT HERSELF DOWN THAT CHUTE’
Phoebe met Antony in 2009 when he was almost 40 and she was 23. They went out for five months before she moved into the event promoter’s apartment on St Kilda Road. Antony, who was never a suspect in the case, told the inquest into her death that Phoebe’s drinking problem was “the monster”, and she was self-destructive and “struggled every day to do the simplest things”. Mum Natalie says her daughter had an intolerance for alcohol and drank to overcome her social insecurities around Antony and his friends. Phoebe walked out on Antony four times in the six weeks before she died, but he convinced her to return.
Antony told the inquest he became concerned when he returned from work to find the apartment was empty and her bag, keys and wallet were on the kitchen counter. There was broken glass on the floor and blood on the mouse and keyboard of their computer.
Antony ordered takeaway, and when the delivery man arrived, he said there were police in the foyer downstairs. Antony denied he had any involvement in her death and Coroner Peter White agreed.
Four years after Phoebe died, the coroner found she had climbed unassisted into the rubbish chute in a “sleepwalking state” following the consumption of alcohol and Stilnox, before she fell down feet first.
Lorne still remains hopeful that one day someone will come forward with the truth. He believes his granddaughter’s death could be related to Melbourne’s drug trade.
Australia’s true-crime queen Robin Bowles, who explored Phoebe’s death in the book Into the Darkness, says she is still angry Phoebe died the way she did and that there is still no resolution for the family. When asked what she believes happened, Robin prefers to say what didn’t happen.
“I don’t think Phoebe put herself down that chute,” she explains. “I think someone else was involved.”